Shooting verdict pains Marine family

Marines carry the body of Staff Sgt. Scott Dickinson after its arrival at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday. Dickinson had been in Afghanistan for four months and was deployed there for seven months in 2010.
Luis M. Alvarez AP

Marines carry the body of Staff Sgt. Scott Dickinson after its arrival at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday. Dickinson had been in Afghanistan for four months and was deployed there for seven months in 2010.
Luis M. Alvarez AP

Relatives of four Marines gunned down by an inside attacker on an Afghan base two years ago are disappointed by what they consider to be a light sentence for the shooter, but the verdict is less important than honoring the dead, said one widow.

Three Marines were killed and another wounded during the Aug. 10, 2012 shooting at Forward Operating Base Delhi in Garmser, Helmand province.

An Afghan teenager working for the police chief was accused of stealing a rifle and firing on the unarmed troops in the base gym until he ran out of ammunition, then boasting afterward to Afghan police: “I just did jihad.”

Ainuddin Khudairaham, who was thought to be about 17 at the time of the attack according to bone-density tests, was tried as a juvenile last week and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in confinement, the maximum under Afghan law for a minor, the Marine Corps confirmed.

Dickinson’s widow, Alicia Dickinson, said she was devastated and moved to tears when she learned of the maximum sentence the suspect would face if tried as a minor.

“Seven and a half years, it’s nothing. Do I wish there had been a greater penalty? Of course,” she said. “For three young lives, it is very hurtful.”

Pauline and John Dickinson, the fallen Marine's parents, said of the verdict: "We're sure it wouldn't be a deterrent to other young Afghanis who want to do the same thing."

Despite their disappointment about the verdict, Alicia Dickinson said it doesn’t matter to her now.

“If it’s the most severe punishment it’s not going to change what happened. It’s not going to bring Scott back. We have to focus on the man that Scott was and making sure people remember what an incredible, incredible man and husband and friend and Marine he was.

“All three of these men did an incredible thing not many of us Americans can do. Not many of us can say ‘Sign me up, if I have to go (to war) so be it,” she said. They were “very brave, honorable men.”

Scott Dickinson's parents described their son as a special young man who wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. “He loved being a Marine, and loved what he was doing in Afghanistan. He volunteered to go on that deployment so he could serve his country. We are not sorry he went, or that he chose to serve in the military,” they said.

“We are proud of him and miss him very much.”

Alicia Dickinson is 32 now and living in the Quantico, Va., area, where she works for Marine Corps Community Services. People tell her she needs to move on, but Dickinson said she feels more in love than ever.

Alicia and Scott met when she was on a college break visiting a Marine friend at Cherry Point, S.C. He was the laidback West Coast complement to her New York upbringing, genuine and selfless, with a great smile and the most happy-go-lucky personality she had ever met.

They were together for 10 years before he died.

“I really admire my husband,” she said. “He always made me a better person and he still is. I look at life very differently now. I see that every day is an opportunity to live my life and give back and contribute,” just like he did.